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Book Festival 0131 624 5050
Fringe 0131 226 0000
lntemational Festival 0131 473 2000 Military Tattoo 0131 225 1188
IMMORTALE
Two magical comic dramas in mask and mime
Germany's Floez theatre company received rave reviews for its 2001 Fringe production. R/sforanfe Immona/e. A hilarious and heart- rending Faw/fy Towers- esque story. told thrOugh mime. masks and music. the show was a truly unique and unusual theatrical treat. and well deserving of a brief revival at St Stephens this year. Also being performed is Teafro Delus/o, Floez‘ latest work. which is also done in mask and mime. This time the masked characters play out a comic and faintly tragic tale of a surreal life in the theatre. told from the point of view of three dreaming technicians. Says Hajo Schuler, co-author and actor in these Floez shows: “If we could explain our work in one sentence. we could stop doing it. It‘s for anyone who is ready to let imagination take its turn on them.’ Special. magical and highly recommended.
(Gareth Davis)
I R/sforanfe Immorta/e: St Stephens, 558 3853. 23—30 Aug (not 24). 6.30pm, 2 72—f 70; Teafro Delus/o: Sf Stephens, 558 3853. 6—22 Aug (not 70, 77), 6.30pm, 872—870 (25).
TIGER LILLIES: PUNCH AND JUDY
Upmarket theatre
‘The Fringe is a dull place full of stand-up comedians.’ Speaking to the Tiger Lillies as they holiday in Marseilles. you'd be forgiven for thinking this high-class cabaret troupe were Festival snobs. Then again. talent tends to breed adversity. And they make few apologies. ‘I find it distasteful,‘ says Lillies founder Martin Jacques. ‘The way in which modern theatre brings things into the present. I'm more interested in looking
Theatre
is discovered. This is what makes ‘The Lift’ so appealing. Its miniature space plays host to an entire festival of new work from outstanding and generally quite young writers.
Film buffs. too. are offered a means of escaping the interminable chic and pretensions of the film festival in this Fringe venue. Shaft of Light. The Lift's programme of short films, includes flicks featuring Ricky Tomlinson and Jarvis
square now. We want to create something dark and unpleasant.’ Nice. (Victoria Hammett)
I Pod Deco, 08707 557 705, 9—29 Aug. 70.45pm, {SS—£73.50 (£548.50).
THE LIFT
Ricky Tomlinson and Jarvis Cocker add weight to new writing venue
back. discovering the meaning of things.’
And so it is that following an extensive world tour, the Lillies bring their warped. inimitable style back to the Fringe fore with shocking operetta. Punch and Judy. Promising to bring the tale of Punch back to its original form — through blow up dolls and puppetry — Jacques is determined to return the show to its more adult roots. “Modernity is so
There are few things more atmOSpheric in the theatre than tiny. tight spaces. particularly ones where new and unknown work
NEXT ISSUE OUT THURSDAY 12 AUGUST
Shaft of light: Jarvis Cocker
Cocker, and looks set to highlight the experimental side of this medium in the traditional home of experiment. new writing theatre. But this is the kind of venue where
whatever is happening hasn't happened too much before. ‘ (Steve Cramer)
I Shaft of Light, the Lift, 556 6550, 4—30 Aug (not 5, I7. 24). times and prices vary.
TEMPTING PROVIDENCE
Homage to Canadian legend
In Canada they call her the ‘Florence Nightingale of the North’. She is Myra Bennett, a nurse and midwife who left her native London in 1921 to put her medical skills to much-needed use in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. Bennett became a legend, not for just delivering babies, but for acting as a one-stop-shop, care-wise. Arriving via horse, dogsled, boat or on foot at the most remote outposts of human life, she would set to mending broken bones, extracting teeth and providing whatever other medical help she could provide.
In 2002, Theatre Newfoundland Labrador commissioned playwright Robert Chafe to write a simple, straightforward account of the life and work of Bennett (honoured many times by the Canadian government) that could tour the senior citizens‘ homes of the provinces. Directed by Newfoundlander Jillian Keiley, it did and with great success, leading to a wider tour and sell-out festival appearances. So now TNL is celebrating its 25th anniversary with the European Premiere of Tempting Providence at the Traverse Theatre, where the company made its Fringe debut with The Glass Menagerie in 1980. (Miles Fielder)
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13-12 Aug 2004 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE 67